The foodservice sector in Canada is cautiously optimistic in today’s now lively and dynamic world, although a certain amount of caution still has to be exercised given the current international scenario. That is the picture that emerges from Foodservice Facts of Restaurants Canada, a well-established partner of HostMilano. This recently published report, which presents statistics, trends, forecasts and analyses, is entitled “Reset. Revive. Redefine”, and describes the still somewhat bumpy road to recovery that nevertheless shows various positive signs. Surveys show that Canadian restaurant customers are generally happy: 90% said they still receive good value for money from restaurants, 89% feel comfortable eating indoors, and 74% have a high opinion of foodservice workers, the highest of any private sector industry.

Forecasts indicate that 2022 should close at pre-pandemic levels: at 95.4 billion Canadian dollars, as against the 95.2 billion dollars of 2019, even with a reduction in customer traffic.

The majority of Canadians have now gone back to working in the office most of the time, or are working partly in the office and partly from home, while just 32% still work mostly from home. In foodservices, however, it is still quite difficult to recruit staff, with restaurants working on average at 80% of their capacity as a result of unfilled labour vacancies. The five strategies being adopted by restaurants to tackle the problem are to raise wages (77% of restaurant operators), to increase hours worked by ownership and management level staff (72%), to reduce hours of operation (64%), to increase menu prices (61%, with an average increase of 7.8% on 2021 forecast for the end of the year) and to introduce flexible shifts for staff (52%).

The growth in delivery as an essential channel continues, with as many as 89% of Canadians aged between 18 and 34 saying they used the service in the last six months. There is (and will continue to be) a need to focus on technology: 74% of Quick Service restaurants and 52% of table-service restaurants will increase their use of automation technologies in the next two years. This will happen in particular in areas such as payment by smartphone and in technologies designed to improve the dining experience.

“Throughout the past two and a half years, the foodservice industry has developed ‘operational calluses’,” says Chris Elliott, Senior Economist, Restaurants Canada. “These calluses have made us better able to withstand any future hardship or challenge that may come our way. Lessons learned from the pandemic have made foodservice operators more resilient and innovative than ever.”